2008 Woodie Awards
Am I beautiful?
SHANNON MORGAN
Assistant Opinion Editor
Issue date: 3/17/08 Section: Opinion
|
Models with flawless, perfectly sculpted, digitally-altered and airbrushed bodies are surrounded by the latest miracle diets and beauty products.
Alongside them are headlines claiming to teach women how to please their men in bed and how to altertheir behavior and appearance to become "beautiful" and worthy of love. This all screams out in unison to women, "You're not good enough!"
I recently tagged along with a friend to a day spa. While she purchased beauty products, I was accosted by a frozen-faced day spa attendant who did her best to show me exactly how ugly I am. She asserted that if I didn't start preventative maintenance soon (I'm 27) there would be no hope for me.
She stood me in front of a mirror and had me scrunch my face to show all my wrinkles while she advocated Botox. She then ran her finger across my cheek, grimaced, and said an acid peal would take care of the unsightly color imbalance on my face.
She said they could inject a chemical into my body that would melt the fat away like butter as she pinched my thigh to show me the unsightly flab I'm supposed to be ashamed of.
After calling me fat, she educated me that my upper lip is entirely too thin. She said it was "urgently" in need of collagen injections to get the full pouty affect that "drives men wild."
If I had all of these procedures done I'd be a man-candy magnet. She told me she would bring the "timeless beauty" that is hiding behind $6,000 worth of my physical imperfections to the surface.
I went home that night with pamphlets about the procedures I needed to have done so I could be beautiful.
Beautiful like the women in the magazines. Beautiful like the woman from the day spa, whose entire face (with exception of her collagen-injected lips) didn't move.
I looked in the mirror and thought "Is that what this is about? Beauty?"
If I burn my face with acid, inject myself with botchalism and chemically burn my fat away, then I'd finally be beautiful? According to the day-spa-demon and "Cosmo," only after cosmetic surgery, diet pills and other such mechanisms will I be unstoppably gorgeous and worthy of affection.
Forgive my boldness, but I already feel unstoppably gorgeous. And if I start to feel un-gorgeous, I take steps to become healthier so I can return my body and mind to a healthy state of balance. I eat healthy food, exercise and make sure the voice in my head matches those healthy lifestyle choices by affirming my self-worth internally.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Celeste
posted 3/17/08 @ 8:09 PM MST
Thank the womanly heavens for this article. I couldn't agree more! A perfect articulation of how many women feel. I am so tired of the bs propaganda we are force fed in the grocery line. (Continued…)
marcus william heleker
posted 3/17/08 @ 10:26 PM MST
"And if they were analyzing those imperfections, then to hell with them."
word!
sara
posted 10/21/08 @ 2:20 PM MST
You know, it's all about money. That attendant gets paid in commision for every customer she ropes in, that's why she was so "critical". My mom used to work in s day spa and quit because she hated how they tried using people's insecurities to wheedle them out of their money. (Continued…)
Post a Comment